Joaquin Lopes saw Selma Goncalves on that winter morning in 2009, stopped his truck and tried to help. That’s when he said he came face-to-face with Keith Luke, who is accused of the rampage on Jan. 21, 2009, during which three people were savagely attacked in Brockton. Two died.

Lopes recalled the events in Brockton Superior Court on Thursday, during the first day of testimony in Luke’s murder trial. Lopes, appearing as a witness for the prosecution, said as he tried to help the wounded woman, Luke appeared and began shooting at him.

Luke, driving a dark-colored van, backed out of an adjacent driveway and began firing at Lopes and other bystanders. Several had also stopped to help Goncalves, who died from her wounds.

He was among five witnesses who testified Thursday in the trial of Luke, now 26, who is accused of carrying out a hate-filled plan, killing two people and raping and critically injuring another before a car chase and shootout with police that had bystanders ducking for cover in a crosstown chase.

A self-proclaimed white supremacist who once came to court with a swastika etched into the skin of his forehead, Luke smirked and laughed during opening statements by Assistant District Attorney Frank Middleton on Thursday. Luke appeared in court wearing a white T-shirt, green prison pants and manacles, but court officers removed the restraints when statements began.

Luke’s attorney, Joseph Krowski Jr., told the all-white jury – eight men and eight women, including four alternates – that Luke, then 22, “was not criminally responsible for the acts he perpetrated upon those people.”

Claiming insanity, Krowski outlined a life of mental illness for Luke. Krowski said Luke obsessed about drawing death scenes growing up and saw more than 30 mental health workers during several stints at hospitals during his teenage years.

“They warned of Jan. 21, 2009,” Krowski said about psychologists who saw Luke. “They warned that it would happen.”

The defense and prosecution both graphically described the horrific attacks four years ago.

“In a vile and cold, dispassionate and despicable manner” Luke raped one of the victims, Krowski said of his client.

He went on to describe Luke as “cold as ice” when he pointed the gun at a second victim and “killed her in cold blood.” That victim was Selma Goncalves, 22, of Clinton Street.

“He drove down the street not a care in the world, cool, calm and collected,” Krowski said about Luke before he shot a third victim in the face.

That was Arlindo Goncalves, 72, who is not related to Selma Goncalves.

All three victims are of Cape Verdean descent.

Middleton, the prosecutor, said Luke had spent more than six months planning his murderous rampage on that day.

“He had packed his black van with all the tools of torture and murder he would need,” Middleton told jurors.

Holding a handgun that Luke is accused of using during his killing spree, Middleton described a graphic and brutal rape – at gunpoint – of a third gunshot victim who survived. The prosecutor then held up handcuffs, among other pieces of evidence used during the crime.

“The evidence will show that he was a sexually frustrated and angry young man bent on revenge, and that he had been planning this day for months,” Middleton said.

Middleton said Luke, who weighed more than 300 pounds in 2009, gave previous statements that he had been repeatedly rejected by women.

“This sexual frustration began to build and build and with it his rage, so he started to plan,” Middleton said.

The witnesses who testified Thursday were Samaritans who tried to help Luke’s shooting victims that day, prosecutors said.

Angelo Ramos testified that he stopped to help Selma Goncalves as she lay bleeding on the sidewalk. He said he then heard about five or six gunshots.

“I was leaning like this, lifting her up, then I heard the shots, so I just lied down beside her,” Ramos said.

Lopes’ voice broke as he spoke of seeing Arlindo Goncalves moments after he was fatally shot in the head.

Luke “tore his last shot” into the elderly man as he pushed a carriage full of cans, Lopes testified.

Goncalves stumbled, Lopes said.

“I slowed down, asked him if he’s OK. He didn’t respond,” Lopes said.

Maureen Pert testified that she was driving on Clinton Street when she saw a woman, Selma Goncalves, on the street bleeding, and a man trying to help her. She said she stopped and got out of her car to help.

Then the bullets came.

“I hit the ground ... I panicked. I was scared to death,” Pert said. “I thought I had been shot.”

Testimony was to continue Friday in a trial expected to last about three weeks.